Elisa Alaluusua

Sketchbooks – a qualitative analysis of the creative strategies used in sketchbooks

Chelsea College of Arts

How do artists use sketchbooks and how do they understand their sketchbooks as a part of their creative processes? This is a practice-led enquiry using video interviews and the drawn image working towards an installation piece with a view to better understand the function of the sketchbook within the creative strategies. The drawn image is used as a part of the process to collate, organise, and better understand the material. In order to gain a historical perspective and establish a classification system sketchbooks are also reviewed and analysed in archives. As a researcher, I place myself in the ethnographic tradition.